You've probably heard about Benu by now. It is one of SF's most celebrated and also most expensive restaurants. And unless you've experienced it yourself, you're probably curious as to what the hell goes on inside those walls that makes it cost so much money. You're also probably wondering if you should actually consider spending much of your net worth on a meal here.

The thing is, dinner at Benu isn't entirely about having a lot of money - it's about how you like to spend the money you've got. If you’re the kind of person who might actually seriously consider adding a $210 abalone supplement to your $228 dollar meal even though it means you're probably going to miss rent next month, you’ll like it here.

You'll also probably appreciate the fact that there is a different server for pretty much each of the 16 courses - the anchovy guy, the dumplings guy, the water guy, the wine guy...there are a lot of guys. And as you might hope once you've decided to spend your money on Benu, many of the dishes those guys deliver will be absolutely mind blowing - most notably the 1000 year old quail egg (unclear how this is accomplished).

To be honest, this was my first time having a meal of this caliber, course number, and astronomical price tag. Would I go back again? Undecided, unless I develop a successful online gambling habit/strategy. But I can say I'm very glad I went once, and I think you'll be too. Just don't expect a perfect experience from front to back.

Despite the extensive variety of servers, and the fact that the meal took, in our case, over three hours, some things still managed to feel a bit rushed. Dishes came out while we were still eating others, and we got the feeling they were trying to get us through our dinner in a hurry so they could go do whatever they do when they aren't running this restaurant, which we're guessing has to do with operating a bank or the Federal Reserve.

As far as advice on the meal itself, we can’t really tell you what to get and what to skip, since it’s prix fixe, but we can tell you what made our brains explode in the Food Rundown. We are chatty people, and some of these things left us speechless. Which may in part explain why this place is so quiet.